What Are The High-Stakes Contests To Watch Out For?
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha polls announced on Saturday will witness a number of high-profile electoral battles, starring veterans and debutants, formidable opponents and unlikely contestants. Here are some key contests to watch out for:
NARENDRA MODI VS ? IN VARANASI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi for the third time. In 2014, he defeated AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and won against Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav in 2019.
The Congress is yet to announce its candidate from the high-profile constituency. In 2019, there was a buzz that Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra might fight from Varanasi but the party fielded Ajay Rai, also its candidate from the constituency in 2014. Before Modi, the Varanasi seat was held by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi.
RAHUL GANDHI VS ANNIE RAJA IN WAYANAD
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will face CPI leader and women’s rights activist Annie Raja as he seeks a second term from Wayanad in Kerala. The contest has aroused public interest particularly since both the Congress and CPI are members of the INDIA alliance.
Annie Raja’s husband and party general secretary D Raja regularly shares the stage with Gandhi. In 2019, Gandhi was elected from the Wayanad constituency after he defeated P P Suneer of the CPI by an impressive 4.31 lakh votes. Annie Raja, general secretary of the party’s National Federation of Indian Women, is making her debut in the Lok Sabha elections.
SMRITI IRANI VS ? IN AMETHI
Amethi, once the pocket borough of the Gandhi family, has seen fierce contests in the last two Lok Sabha polls. While BJP's Smriti Irani, who wrested the seat from Rahul Gandhi in 2019, is seeking a re-election from the constituency, the Congress has not yet announced its candidate from Amethi.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi represented
Amethi in Parliament from 2004 till 2019. Party workers have been wanting him to contest from Amethi to win back the seat, represented earlier by his uncle Sanjay Gandhi, father Rajiv Gandhi and later, his mother Sonia Gandhi. This will be Irani's third Lok Sabha election from the constituency. In 2014, she had made her LS polls debut but lost to Rahul Gandhi.
SHASHI THAROOR VS RAJEEV CHANDRASHEKHAR IN THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
Sitting MP and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor is seeking a re-election from Thiruvananthpuram for a fourth consecutive term. He will face BJP leader and Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is making his Lok Sabha debut and wants to open the saffron party's account in Kerala. The other prominent leader in the contest is CPI's Pannyan Raveendran, who had won the elections from the constituency in 2005.
ADHIR RANJAN CHOWDHURY VS YUSUF PATHAN IN BAHARAMPUR
Former cricketer Yusuf Pathan has been fielded by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) from the Baharampur constituency in West Bengal, a Congress stronghold currently held by its Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Chowdhury, the West Bengal Congress unit president, has represented Baharampur five times as an MP since he was first elected from the seat in 1999. He is gearing up to seek a sixth term from the constituency. The Congress has not yet announced its candidate from the seat.
BANSURI SWARAJ VS SOMNATH BHARTI IN NEW DELHI
BJP has replaced two-time MP and Union minister of state Meenakshi Lekhi from this seat with Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late Union minister Sushma Swaraj. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Malviya Nagar MLA Somnath Bharti from the seat. With the Congress and AAP contesting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance in the national capital, the contest in the high-profile constituency has acquired added significance and urgency.
BHUPESH BAGHEL VS SANTOSH PANDEY IN RAJNANDGAON
Congress has fielded its former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from the Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha seat in Chhattisgarh, a BJP bastion for more than three decades and seen as the turf of its former threetime CM Raman Singh. He is locked in a contest with BJP's sitting MP Santosh Pandey. The BJP hasn't lost this seat since 2009. The Congress has put one of its strong candidates in an attempt to break the convention and win from the BJP's stronghold.
RAHUL KASWAN VS DEVENDRA JHAJHARIA IN CHURU
Two-time MP from Churu Rahul Kaswan resigned from BJP last week and has been fielded by the Congress from the same seat. He is pitted against paralympic champion Devendra Jhajharia who will contest the election from BJP. Padma Bhushan javelin thrower, Jhajharia is a two-time paralympics gold medallist and onetime silver medallist.
Kaswan is a third generation Jat politician from Rajasthan's Shekhawati region. He became the youngest Lok Sabha member from the state at the age of 37 when he won the 2014 general elections by defeating Bahujan Samaj Party’s Abhinesh Maharshi. He had won with a record margin of 2.94 lakh votes in 2014, which was the highest-ever in Churu Lok Sabha constituency. He was an immediate successor of his father Ram Singh Kaswan, who represented the seat in Lok Sabha for four terms.
MAHABAL MISHRA VS KAMALJEET SEHRAWAT IN WEST DELHI
Veteran Congress leader and former MP Mahabal Mishra is in the fray again but as an AAP candidate. The seat went to the AAP in alliance with the Congress. He was elected as Congress MP from West Delhi in 2009 by defeating BJP's Jagdish Mukhi.
The BJP has replaced sitting MP Pravesh Verma and has fielded former South Delhi mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat. In 2019, Verma won this seat with the highest margin of 578,000 votes among all seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi.